Representative Miller-Kurakin
Early life Born in Emporium on june 5th 1974 Boris Miller-Kurakin grew up in the last remaining branch of the great and prestigious house of Kurakin, an old dynasty which had once held vast power and close ties to the monarchy but had since become impoverished through a serious of financial and political disasters. As such he grew up in a family which was aristocratic in name but relatively common in resources. His father Felix ran a small but successful financial consultancy firm and as was therefore able to provide the young Boris and his Siblings with a modest, but comfortable, upbringing. At the age of 13 however; his father's fortunes took a turn for the worse. His primary clients were wealthy members of the aristocracy and this was well known to the populace. Local left wing radicals began to threaten Felix, falsely accusing him of advising the gentry of acting against the interests of the populace and blaming him for their extreme actions. While some of Felix's clients made attempts to assist him others were jealous of his influence and saw this as an opportunity to create a scapegoat for their activities and deliberately inflamed the existing hatred towards him as well as helping to expose gaps in his security. Directly through their betrayal Felix Miller-Kurakin and his wife Marianne were murdered on October 23rd 1992 at the hands of left wing extremists. It was at this point, in the midst of tragedy, that King Tiervan took an interest in his case. While he had had no direct contact with the deceased Felix Miller-Kurakin, he knew of him and his family by reputation. Eager to reward what he saw as an example of aristocratic virtue and to show the nature of the terror wielded by revolutionary radicals he made the young Boris and his siblings Royal wards, to have their housing and education provided for by the royal coffers. Though this act could arguably be seen as a propaganda measure Boris himself maintains that it was also a true act of kindness Military Career and Counter-Revolutionary Activities At the age of 18 he enrolled in Emporium university to study military history; becoming a member of the institution's command cadet corps (CCC). As a result upon graduation he enlisted into the Royal Army and gained his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the military intelligence corps a year later at 23. In the decade that followed he rose to the rank of captain and refused to transfer outside of intelligence despite numerous offers of promotion to high command. During the revolution he was well known for several successful clandestine missions including but not limited to the organisation of pro-monarchist partisan forces, many of which continued to operate independently even after the army surrendered. He was also widely suspected of masterminding the bomb plot of January 2009 which attempted to assassinate Jani Helle. While the plot was ultimately unsuccessful the explosion was so close that Helle was believed to suffer from permanent health problems thereafter and no evidence linking this to Kurakin was ever found. In the closing days of the Revolution however, after the capture of Emporium Castle, he saved thousands of lives by encouraging an entire regiment to give up their arms rather than fight to the death. He convinced them that by dying and taking many of their revolutionary countrymen with them they would achieve nothing, however by integrating into this new society they could influence it's development and retain many of its other great traditions which they held dear. In his words they would have to “face the unfaceable” and sacrifice the monarchy in the present to hold onto other values in the future. Political Activities and Later Life In the years following the revolution Boris became a prominent activist for the Forward Oceana party, becoming it's leader in the 2012-2013 session of parliament. In the following elections he stepped back as leader to take time to write his book “Island of Destiny: From Dawn to Conquest, An Early History of Oceana”. This fresh insight into the early timeline of Oceana quickly became a bestseller in Emporium, Panopea and throughout central Oceana. At first it was not widely accepted in Glaschu but in recent years with the advent of the new government attitudes have shifted allowing for it's sales to steadily rise. Though the royalties have afforded him a significant income he still maintains that his role in government is his true passion, with his attentions more recently focused towards the reconstruction of the military via the new defence ministry.